The Scotiabank Saddledome was buzzing with excitement, and not just because Gary Bettman was in the building.

Micheal Ferland and Kris Versteeg were both back on the ice Friday morning, skating with the Calgary Flames during their pre-game twirl and wearing yellow jerseys to signify their road to recovery.

Ferland is dealing with an upper body injury suffered on Feb. 15 in Nashville, while Versteeg has missed 43 games following hip surgery.

“Ferly is feeling a bit better so we’ll monitor him today and see how the injury is after the skate,” said Flames head coach Glen Gulutzan. “Steeger is still a bit of ways off but now he’s at the point where he can do some pre-game skates and we’ll start to see how he progresses with some practice next week.”

While Versteeg’s return is unclear, Ferland’s return to action is targeted on Monday when the Flames play at Pittsburgh or Wednesday at Buffalo.

Meanwhile Mike Smith has “made progression” which has the Flames anxious about his return. Smith, 35, has been on injured reserve after suffering a lower body injury on Feb. 11 in the final minute of Calgary’s 3-2 road win at the New York Islanders.

“Where we were four days ago to where we are now, we’ve taken a good leap,” Gulutzan said of the netminder’s recovery.

The most pressing news is the fact the New York Rangers are in town and the Flames are coming off back-to-back losses against Dallas and Colorado. Calgary (32-24-9) is home for one game before heading on the road again for a three-game swing through Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Ottawa.

The most recent ‘L’ was an undisciplined 5-2 loss at Pepsi Centre which featured a complete unravelling by the Flames.

Five penalties against Arizona. Six penalties in Dallas. Seven in Colorado.

“We play good when we’re an emotional group,” Gulutzan said. “But we’re a little too emotional … we started to lean on our guys a little bit here and they’re emotional right now — in a good way, they’re hungry. But we have to harness that a little better. We talked about not taking that many penalties. It takes us out of our rhythm. We talked about this in October. We’re better when we play four lines.”

Speaking of lines, Gulutzan indicated that he wasn’t set on his lineup which featured Troy Brouwer on a line with Mark Jankowski and Chris Stewart while Tanner Glass, Matt Stajan and Garnet Hathaway were on the fourth line.

Sam Bennett remained on the Flames top line with Ferland still out. Meanwhile Nick Shore skated for the first time at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Gillies was the first netminder off the ice Friday.

This Week's Flyers

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